Formula One’s governing body is trialling artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle track limits breaches at this weekend’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Paris-based FIA said it would be using ‘Computer Vision’ technology that uses shape analysis to work out the number of pixels going past the track edge.
The AI will sort out the genuine breaches, where drivers cross the white line at the edge of the track with all four wheels, reducing the workload for the FIA’s remote operations centre (ROC) and speeding up the response.
The July 2 Austrian Grand Prix was a high water mark for the sport with just four people having to process an avalanche of some 1,200 potential violations.
By the title-deciding Qatar weekend in October there were eight people assigned to assess track limits and monitor 820 corner passes, with 141 reports sent to race control who then deleted 51 laps. Some breaches still went unpunished at October’s U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, however.
Stewards said this month that their inability to properly enforce track limits violations at turn six was “completely unsatisfactory” and a solution needed to be found before the start of next season.
